As you have probably heard, they have attempted legal action to restrain the use of both the Woolworths logo (disputably fruit-like) and a product called DOPi (iPod backwards).

(They have also sued Samsung over the use of certain technologies without permission, which is fair – although I note that Nokia’s suit against Apple for similar reasons didn’t seem to get as much press.)

Opposing someone elses use of a trademark requires an analysis of whether it is ‘deceptively similar’, taking into account the types of products as well as the people who would be exposed to both marks.

I would not be the first blogger to point out that to your average consumer this just looks like rubbish. And thus far, the Australian Trade Marks Office has agreed…

If you cannot tell that these are two completely different brands, get your eyes checked. The gradient work is completely different.

So remember kids, 'i' comes before 'p', except after a lawsuit

Beware, therefore, if you ever want to launch this:

The news of this lawsuit is building and may only serve to draw attention to ‘Wholesale Central’, the otherwise forgettably-named owner of the DOPi logo. Potentially disastrous if they were intending on bringing out similar products! (Unless this is the intent as it goes back to promoting the use of their own products in a twisted kind of way…)

This just makes Apple look like a dictator – we can excuse them for making their products exclusively work with each other, but petty lawsuits can become nasty PR very easily. It’s just as simple as me clicking ‘publish’…